Freelancer in Homel Gets the Second Fine in a Month

Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki and his col­league Arkadz Malysh were sum­moned to court by a text mes­sage. Arkadz Malysh was sum­moned as a wit­ness.

On Decem­ber 22, 2015 the jour­nal­ists were briefly detained by police in town Kar­ma. They were mak­ing a report about prob­lems with water sup­ply in the town. After the deten­tion, Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki was sum­moned to police to draw up the report; his col­league was sum­moned only to court.

Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki was found guilty of vio­lat­ing art. 22.9 of the Code of Admin­istartive Vio­la­tions (ille­gal pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass media prod­ucts) and fined for 30 basic amounts. This has been the sec­ond fine imposed on him this year, the first one hap­pened on Jan­u­ary 14 in Kalinkavichy town. In 2015, Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki was fined six times.

BAJ Appeals to President’s Administration Regarding Persecution of Freelancers

EFJ president: It is worrying that the government is renewing this bad practice with a new wave of prosecution against freelance journalists”